In Robert Dowty's book "Rebirth of the Jupiter and the 119", he states that (in 1978) the locomotive's driving wheels arrived from The Southern Railway's locomotive shops in Birmingham, "the only shop in the country that could handle a job of this size".

My question is, what exactly did they (Birmingham shops) do? Thanks.

SJHussar@aol.com

They bored the crankpin holes to quarter in their quartering machine. At that time, I believe they had the only operable quartering machine in the country.

Now, the ex-Southern machine is at the Grand Canyon, and the D&S, TVRM, and the Strasburg Rail Road have the ability to quarter crankpins.

I am writing this from memory, so please forgive any errors.

I'm told the Southern Ry. Birmingham quartering machine and wheel lathe (the latter not yet operable at GCR) came originally from the Nickel Plate at Conneaut, Ohio.

> They bored the crankpin holes to quarter in
> their quartering machine. At that time, I
> believe they had the only operable
> quartering machine in the country.

> Now, the ex-Southern machine is at the Grand
> Canyon, and the D&S, TVRM, and the
> Strasburg Rail Road have the ability to
> quarter crankpins.

> I am writing this from memory, so please
> forgive any errors.


ryarger@rypn.org

One of the things I've learned from talking to expert machinists at the Steam Railroading Institute and previously at Michigan State University is that specialized machinery isn't necessary to do locomotive machining. The value in owing a driver lathe or quartering machine is that the work can be done conveniently and quickly. That is important if you were doing several engines a week in a railroad shop, or need to minimize the expense of machining wheels for a museum engine. But our machinists have explained to me that there are any number of ways to set up other machines to bore and quarter crankpin holes, resurface journals, or turn tires. To a good machinist, there is ALWAYS another way; the only variable is how much set-up time is involved.

Aarne Frobom
The Steam Railroading Institute
P. O. Box 665
Owosso, MI 48867

To a good
> machinist, there is ALWAYS another way; the
> only variable is how much set-up time is
> involved.

> Absolutely, if the lathe is big enough you can turn drivers, and if you have access to a fair sized horizontal boring mill you can easily quarter crank pins.


jasonsobczynski@yahoo.com

We have turned and quartered crankpins on a a 4" HBM with a rotary table and big V-Blocks on risers first pick up center and dial out the stroke on X or Y axies then rotate 180 and go back to center and dial out the opposite axies . if the machine had digial readouts it could also be done by trig by placing cranks anywere. Most tourist engines can be done on a 4" bar Machine but a main line engine would want a 5"or6" Machine Giddings& Lewis sold a fixture for this work look in 1947 Loco Cycl. for pictures.


daug@inreach.com